Canyon Crossroads

I totally forgot that this western was actually a modern one, but still solid, taut, and splendidly made and acted by the vet Alfred Werker, whose career shone mainlly in the end, with a batch of interesting westerns. He finds again here Richard Basehart, after the tremendous HE WALKED BY NIGHT. The main flaw is that the story is predictable, even for a six years old kid. It's not the best from this Budd Boetticher like western maker - I mean not great classics westerns but solid ones though. This movie is nevertheless never boring. The settings and landscapes evoke westerns but, I repeat, this is not a western.

I watched this film for one reason--Richard Basehart. He made some dandy B-movies in the 1950s, and so when I saw this on Netflix, I decided to give it a watch. Unfortunately, the film just wasn't very interesting.

Basehart plays a stubborn Uranium prospector who insists he knows where he can find ore. But, since he hasn't got the money, he is forced to work for others. Eventually, however, he's able to get a rich guy to stake him the money and the rich guy's daughter (Phyllis Kirk) goes along with Basehart for the journey. Now Kirk's character HATES Basehart's, so you know by the end of the film they'll be in love (this is film cliché #5). In the meantime, they take on another partner and head into the desert.

Up until this point, I was totally bored by the film. The chemistry between the man and woman just seemed phony and nothing of any great interest occurs...nothing. However, the film does pick up a bit when they make a bit strike, as some scum-bags are more than willing to kill them and steal their claim. Overall, not a bad film but one that barely ever interested me. Had the relationship between Kirk and Basehart now been one giant cliché after another, it would have been a lot better.

This is a terrific, but rarely shown modern day western. Uranium hunters in the west are set upon by claim jumpers, on horses, and helicopters. The totaly believable tale, told in flashback moves along at a great pace, each character fully developed. Basehart, cast against type, is great as the maligned mining engineer. Moves to a terrific conclusion...see it,tape it.

This "B" thriller doesn't start off too promisingly. I never did find flash-backs too engrossing and I really object to speeding up the action in fist fights.

Fortunately, after a display of these faults, the movie settles down. Both director and photographer make effective use of the Utah desert locations with some fine vistas of horseback riders against rugged mountain slopes and peaks. Budget constraints have obviously precluded the use of running inserts, but we do get some suspenseful helicopter shots in the action climax.

The plot is a familiar one and the dialogue is no more than serviceable, but it is acted out with reasonable conviction. True, Miss Kirk is a little too skeletal for my taste, and I found Mr Basehart just a bit too rough and ready to be wholly convincing. As for the chief villain, he's not much for personality. What Raymond Burr could have done with that role!

The pace of Werker's direction is inclined to be a little slow, but it does allow the script to build up a bit of tension.

A Mickey Mouse music score doesn't help the movie any, but the Utah locations are a definite asset. All told, a fair enough time-filler.

The movie amounts to a modern day western. A little background might help since the subject matter now seems pretty obscure. I grew up in Colorado about the time of the short-lived uranium boom of the early 1950's. Gold and silver mining had dried up for various reasons, so my gold miner dad took quickly to uranium prospecting, as did a lot of amateur 'weekend' prospectors. All that was needed was a Geiger counter and preferably some knowledge of mineral formations. Dad would sometimes take me along, and it was an adventure over on Colorado's craggy 'western slope' (not far from the movie's Moab, Utah). Because of the spreading Cold War, the government was paying top dollar for uranium for nuclear weapons. And though not mentioned in the movie, they also paid top dollar for 'strategic minerals' like vanadium and manganese, used in metal hardening like in fighter planes. I don't remember our finding anything and Dad soon went back to gold mining which he knew best. Anyway, knowing now about the long-term effects of even brief radio-activity exposure, I'm just as glad we didn't find anything.

The movie's the only one I've seen dealing with this subject, which makes it definitely offbeat. The plot plays like an old-time matinée western, where a slick bad guy (Elliot) tries to hijack a uranium deposit from Basehart, his reluctant girlfriend Kirk, and her dad. The action centerpiece is the helicopter vs. man-on-the-ground battle. It's a white-knuckler and one of the first, I believe, to make that movie use of a whirlybird. Another highlight is the dramatic terrain around Moab, which the film blends in nicely. Of course, Basehart was one of the best actors of the time and manages to make his washed-up mining engineer believable. However, sharp-featured Phyllis Kirk really does look uncomfortable, while it may indeed have been a difficult shoot for a woman

Anyway, the action-adventure is well worth a look-see. And though the boomlet's time may have long passed, it remains symptomatic of our post-war period.